Back to School - Practicing

Welcome back to all the students we missed over the summer break. We hope you had a great holiday and we're excited to get back to teaching you. Now that everyone is getting back to school, I thought I'd talk a little about practicing. When learning a new skill practice is so important, and learning a musical instrument is no exception. Cramming a whole bunch of practicing in right before a lesson just doesn't cut it, you need to practice daily. 15 minutes of practicing every day will trump 2 hours of straight practice on one day every time.

Recently we got to watch athletes from around the world compete in the Olympics. If any of you think they don't practice daily, then you'd be wrong. Just like sports, musicians need to build muscle and memory in order to improve. The best way to do it is to make it an integral part of your daily routine. For example, when you get home from school, before you go play with friends or turn on the t.v., exercise your brain by practicing your music. It should be easy to do to just add it in to your normal school-day routine. If you like, try playing your instrument for your family or even your friends when they come over. It's a great skill to show off.

"Success is no accident. It is hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, sacrifice and most of all, love of what you are doing."-Pele

In August, we successfully completed our practice contest and we had 5 winners over 5 weeks. We'll do it again next summer, but until then, thank you to all the students who put in the effort to do their practicing. We definitely noticed your hard work.